Young girls and adolescents in Latin America spend almost twice as much time as their male peers on domestic work and caring for others, according to a new UNICEF study.
Around the world, these unpaid tasks fall mainly on women, hindering their access to full-time employment and undermining their academic performance, the research notes.
Girls and young women “take on a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities,” said Roberto Benes, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, referring to data collected in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay.
On average, adolescent girls in these countries spend 2.25 hours a day on domestic chores, while boys spend 1.3 hours, according to the report released Monday.
In the poorest families, the gap between adolescent girls and boys doubles, with girls spending at least 14 hours more per week on domestic chores than their male peers, added a statement from UNICEF, the United Nations’ agency for children.
Unpaid care work, which includes children, the elderly and the sick, “is one of the main barriers to gender equality,” said María Noel Vaeza, regional director of UN Women, said in the report.
Last Thursday, in an unprecedented decision, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declared that caring for people is a right that must be guaranteed by states and that people who take on these tasks without remuneration “must progressively enjoy minimum social security guarantees.”
UNICEF presented its study on the occasion of the 16th Regional Conference on Women, which will be inaugurated by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, gender-based violence is a latent problem. In 2023, at least 11 women were killed every day for gender-based reasons in the region, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC).
– TIMES/AFP
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